With baby #2 due in February, DH and I are seriously considering cloth diapering. We used disposables with DS, but since he was born, we have transitioned to a very green lifestyle. Plus, we are always looking at ways to cut costs, and the initial investment in CDs is well worth it in the end!

I'm very excited about this decision, but as soon as I share the news with anyone, all I get are negative reactions. "They're so messy." "Nobody will know how to use them or want to fool with them." "Are you still going to send disposables to church/babysitter/etc?" "Oh, you'll get tired of doing laundry and give up after about a week!"

To me, this is one of the best decisions DH and I have made concerning the baby so far. But it would be wonderful if I actually felt like I had some support from the people around me! Even my own mother, who knows how earth-friendly and all that we are, is very irritating. She's been telling me all about how she CD with my older sister, how much she hated it, how much I am going to hate it, etc. We have a new mom at our church who CDs, which I think is great, but my mom goes on to tell me how muh the nursery workers hate them, "can't" change her diapers and always have to get Jennifer when the baby needs a change... it's so frustrating!!

I could really use some encouragement from some of you moms who are having success and both appreciate and actually enjoy your decision to CD. Thanks a billion!

I just started researching cloth myself. It can be overwhelming at first to try to get a preference. I found a local group in my community that helps newbies like us out. I just googled my city and cloth diapers and it came up. The first meeting is next week. The owner (?) of the group bring samples and other people bring their favs and then you get to see them and ask questions,etc. I am happy to share whatever I find out. I think when the baby is young I am going to go with prefolds and covers. Hope that Helps!

I agree with PP on the reactions when they see them. People seriously just picture pins and plastic pants, and that is SO not the way of cloth now! Once you start doing it and are very confident in it, people tend to show more interest and ask questions about it, rather than having negative things to say. I even use primarily prefolds right now, and people are still really interested in what I'm doing and how it's done. Go for it!

I love my cloth, we have 2 in them right now. I left the kids with my mom for a short while, didn't give her any cloth instructions and she had no problem figuring it out on her own (BG 4.0)... My hubby, who before we had kids, swore he'd never change diapers, prefers cloth and has no problem using them (with the exception of prefolds). However, I did just recently buy a few itti bitti tuttos and they're slightly complicated.

I rarely hear negative comments, the only one that I can really think of was from a friend and she just said "gross". I've actually peaked interest in others to switch to cloth. Then of course when people see what today's cloth is, you get a lot of positive comments because they're so cute! Thats including the preschool teachers we had an interview with just recently.

I also like doing diaper laundry, its never gotten old and I'm washing daily to every other.

As far as saving money, lol... there's a slight risk to over spend with all the fluffy temptation out there

Well, I got to meet with a lady who owns a local business, so I got to really dive into all of it. And I absolutely fell in LOVE! I am SO excited about this!! We even got a registry started and I'm going to have a diaper party towards the end of the year!

I heard all of that from my family, too. Especially my mom! It was so disheartening. But after the first few months, when they realized we were really doing it and succeeding, the comments stopped. I send the easiest dipes possible (our pocket dipes) for the church nursery, and they haven't complained at all. However, if she hasn't had her regular morning poop yet, I will send her in a disposable so they won't freak out, lol. My mom has come around for the most part, but if my parents are keeping our kids for a couple days, I send disposables because I know they're more comfortable with that, and I don't trust my mom washing the dipes. She'd probably bleach them. Just do what you want to do, and try to ignore the negativity. Once you're using cloth, you'll be surprised how intrigued most people are, and people are less likely to say 'gross' to your face.

Charlotte! I'm so glad to see you back on these boards! Congrats on your pregnancy!

I think a lot of people that decide to cloth diaper get some sort of negative reaction at first. I know we did. Even my husband was not on board until I explained everything to him. Like him, most of my friends/family thought of cloth diapering as lots of pins, folding, really messy (my husband kept picturing logs of poop swishing around our washing machine, lol) etc. We actually went to a cloth diaper store and got a tutorial on how everything works. It helped me to convince him and also gave me some ideas on how to better explain the benefits to others.

I actually kept a couple of cloth diapers in my trunk when we would drive somewhere to meet with friends and would show people when I got the "ew, gross" look. Everyone was shocked when they saw how adorable they are and easy to use. Like PP's have said, you will get a lot of "really, that's not too hard" or "how cute!" or "I thought you had to pin!" from people. It's actually funny, once you announce to the "world" that you are cloth diapering, you will be surprised about how many people come out and say "Me too!!!" I was shocked to find out how many people I know that CD too, who knew?

We took ours a step farther and I opened my own cloth diapering website called Tummy 2 Bummy. See how easy it is to get hooked?

I was one of those negative people!! My best friend told me she was going to use cloth. I thought she was crazy, and probably even told her she would hate it and not stick with it. I was wrong. When I realized she loved it and was not going to quit, I still thought she was crazy, but was happy for her and thought it was great that she was doing it. I said I would NEVER cd. (She lives pretty far away, and I didn't get the chance to see the dipes in use).

When I had dd, she tried to suggest cding to me. I said no way. Then when dd was about 15 months, pampers switched to the "drymax" dipes. We had lots of issues with them. I switched to huggies, which gave her a rash. I finally gave up and decided to give cloth a try. We rented some pocket diapers, and I found very quickly that I loved them!! After about a week, I tried to put a disposable diaper on her and she freaked out. She screamed and fought and wouldn't let me put it on her. I grabbed a cd and she layed there fine. That was it. Decision made.

I had lots of people say negative things to me when they found out I was using cloth. I just tried to remember how I was. I don't think people mean to be negative, they just jump to conclusions, and it's really just from lack of knowledge. After seeing my dipes, almost everyone is impressed. My sister switched to cloth for her second baby, and other friends have seen either mine or her diapers and made the switch too. I think the negative comments just made me refuse to give up when we did have issues. I'm so glad I tried.

You are making a great decision, and I am sure your family and friends will come around once they are a little more informed. If nothing else, this site was great support to me when I needed it.